BMW Starter Switch

Well, it finally happened. The starter switch on the BMW stopped working. I’ve been lucky so far as this is a common problem with the K1600. I had installed a new Shorai battery and then rode it to work a few days ago. When I went out to go to lunch and tried to start the bike, pressing the starter switch did nothing. Since the dashboard display and headlight came on, I was pretty sure the battery was fine.

Thankfully, I had saved some instructions to my phone describing how to bypass the starter switch by jumping a couple of terminals under a relay. After finding some spare wire and touching the proper terminals, it started right up.

One of the suspected causes of the starter switch failure on these bikes is that the switch gets too hot while sitting out in the hot sun. So, I draped a cool cloth over it to cool it down. That didn’t work so I had to hotwire it again when it was time to go home.

Looks like its time to make an appointment to get the right switchgear replaced. It seems to be working today so apparently its going to be an intermittent problem.